John Cleese Managed to Stay Off Twitter for Eight Days Before Resuming His Feud With Eric Idle
As his daughter predicted, John Cleese's self-imposed exile from Twitter/X didn’t last long. To be fair, the Monty Python star managed to stay silent (save for a couple of retweets) for nearly nine days before deciding to fire new shots at archenemy and former comedy compatriot Eric Idle.
The latest grenade lob continues a social media feud from earlier this year. Idle publicly complained that the group’s relative lack of riches was due to mismanagement by Terry Gilliam’s daughter, Holly, who runs the company that steers Monty Python projects. Cleese, Michael Palin and (surprise) Terry Gilliam came out in support of Holly at the time. Cleese said that he found her to be “very efficient, clear-minded, hard-working and pleasant.”
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What sparked the flames again? Deadline reports that Idle created “a fresh post on X (once Twitter),” accusing Cleese of firing former manager Jim Beach and installing Holly.
Idle certainly made the allegation, but back in February, more than seven months ago. So what bunched up Cleese’s boxers shorts that prompted him to fire back to a February 11th reply to Idle’s post?
Did Cleese just now stumble upon @KorikoQueen’s question: “Why was Cleese allowed to fire Jim? You guys had no say on that?”
Or maybe he’s just spent the summer cooking up a reply. “This is an invention,” Cleese fumed after the seven-month delay. “Jim, who was an old friend of mine from Cambridge days, became Python manager after the O2 show. About four years ago he suffered a bad stroke and subsequently resigned as our manager. His number 2, Holly Gilliam, automatically took over as Python manager.”
Why even the most diehard fan would be interested in the succession plans of Monty Python’s backstage management is a question only Cleese and Idle can answer. More amusing to Cleese’s followers was the fact that the comedian didn’t take long to reverse his decision to leave Twitter.
